The present invention relates to systems and techniques for capturing, aggregating and/or visualizing structural data of architectures of technical equipment (e.g., information technology (IT) architectures).
In general, organizations lack a clear understanding of how their IT architecture is aligned with demands of their business. An IT architecture generally comprises complex, interdependent structures that are in a perpetual state of change and cannot be easily analyzed and/or modified. For example, some desired functionality may be implemented multiple times, while other functions are not implemented. This may occur, for example, because there may be a misconception as to what has been implemented and how that has been implemented. Thus, organizations may be unable to quickly understand the interrelations between multiple entities, analyze the data associated with these interrelationships, and deduce appropriate decisions based on this analysis because of a lack of a correlation between their IT architecture and the demands of their business.
The availability of accurate data for an IT architecture and applications in the architecture for an entire organization may be limited. Much of the information relating to architectural structures may be distributed over a wide range of business units and may exist only in the heads of a group of designers, who might not coordinate information among themselves. Accurate application details may be available only from the individual persons with operational responsibility for them (i.e. data may be available only for limited areas in discrete areas, and might not be interrelated with other areas such that a general overview of the structure, including functional relationships is available). In a few cases where structural overviews are available, the structural overview may be obsolete as soon as they are printed due to a rapid combined rate of change in implemented applications, organizational structures, and business functionality being delivered.
The ability to efficiently plan for, and execute, change programs in complex architectures may be limited by a capacity to adequately develop and analyze alternative approaches to achieving desired goals. Depicting an end goal might not be as much of a problem as not having the means necessary to clearly communicate individual transition steps, and associated impact and costs, along the way. Along with this, the true costs associated with changing the way requirements are fulfilled, even if a correct decision was reached, are often not apparent until the process of change is underway because some significant interdependencies may have been omitted from the analysis. This may result in excessive costs, poorly timed strategies and wasteful investments.